Cabinets of Curiosities

The Museum of Jurassic Technology, The Witch's Door, Eight Very Bad Nights

Where does the time go?

On Easter Sunday in 2004, I went to see Lawrence Weschler read at a bar in LA and immediately afterward I read his excellent book Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders, which is more or less about The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City. Weschler connects the cabinets of curiosities assembled by Europeans explorers, naturalists, and traders of antiquity with the urge to collect and display that is found in modern museums, which The Museum of Jurassic Technology subverts in all kinds of clever and not-so-subtle ways.

When I lived in LA, it was my favorite place to take visitors to the city. So strange and incongruous. Sometimes I’d sit in the lounge and drink tea out of a samovar and imagine that I was a gentleman explorer who’d recently returned from some far-flung outpost with a report on my findings.

That copy of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders was my first gift to Nuvia and the bar in LA was none other than the Mountain Bar in Chinatown, which will mean something to some of you. Weschler, incidentally, has an excellent newsletter that you should consider subscribing to immediately.

Opening The Witch’s Door

Eighteen years later—or a little over two years ago—I started working on a book that would return to these sensibilities and become The Witch’s Door.

Ryan Matthew Cohn and Regina M. Rossi own one of the largest collections of oddities in the world, and they wanted to write a book about it. What kind of oddities are we talking about?

Unusual taxidermy specimens, rare books on the occult, antique wax figures, vintage medical equipment, authentic shrunken heads, dioramas of Victorian birds, memento mori sculptures, creepy-looking dolls, an iron maiden, dozens of skulls, and a door marked with strange carvings that dated back the 1600s. Imagine a cabinet of curiosities so vast it could fill a museum and you have an idea of the scope of the collection.

I went to Connecticut to see all this stuff with my own eyes. Ryan and Regina live in a three-story Victorian home with a vast basement and every room is stuffed with hundreds of objects. Every shelf, every table, every inch of wall space is filled with strange specimens, unusual artifacts, and wondrous works of art.

“Welcome to the maximalist hell that is our home!” Ryan said.

Ryan and Regina gave me a lengthy tour and told me stories about the pieces in their collection, where they came from, and how they came to own them. It was a bit like getting a private tour to the strangest museum I’d ever seen. Except unlike The Museum of Jurassic Technology, I could hold the specimens in my hands.

That spring and summer I went on the road to support Make It Stop and the paperback release of Corporate Rock Sucks, but we spoke on the phone just about every week. We wrote the book chapter by chapter, something I’d never done before, and we had a complete draft by the fall. We spent the winter reviewing the copy edits and getting the final photos together and now here we are.

Regina, Jim, Ryan

The Witch’s Door closes

It’s only fitting that the book was launched at historic Clifton’s Republic in LA last week, a beguiling multi-story bar that feels like a cross between an amusement part and a diorama in a natural history museum with sections called Forest Glen, Pacific Seas Tiki Bar, and Gothic Lounge. I had the honor of emceeing a Q&A with Ryan and Regina and had a great time hamming it up with the crowd.

Afterward, I drove back to San Diego only to come back to LA three days later with Nuvia for the book signing at the Oddities Flea Market, an incredible gathering of artists and artisans who dabble in the odd. It was held at Avalon in Hollywood and I think it was the first time I’d been back to old Palace where I saw dozens of shows. On the night I interviewed Bouncing Souls some skinheads were fighting with each other and the band stopped playing and launched into songs by The Cure until everyone calmed down. Good times!

Anyway, when were we? I had lunch with my agent and discussed some new projects we’re trying to get going and I met up with a loyal reader of this newsletter (Hi Devon!). That evening we reconvened at the club above Avalon for a special event with Danny Elfman. It was supposed to be a Q&A but Elfman stole the show when he hooked up his iPad to the projector and showed off his collection of oddities, which was both strange and extensive.

Ryan and Regina will continue to do events on the east coast and the book is making its way around the country. It’s the kind of book that should have a nice long life in museum gift shops, but if you see a copy in the wild please let me know.

My least favorite thing about collaboration is that you spend all this time working together on a book project and when it’s over that’s it. On to the next. I will always be grateful to Ryan and Regina for inviting me to join in the celebration of their first book. That kind of closure is both special and rare. It’s an experience I will always treasure in the cabinet of curiosities of my memories.

If you’d like a copy of The Witch’s Door, Bookshop is offering free shipping today. Use this link and not only will you get free shipping, but yours truly will receive a small cut. That’s true of all the links I post in Message from the Underworld.

But wait there’s more…

While this chapter of my life is closing, another is opening. I’m happy to announce it’s Eight Very Bad Nights season! Your favorite anthology of Hanukkah Noir is coming and it’s got a story by yours truly in it.

The book was named to Publisher’s Weekly 2024 Holiday Guide, which means you should preorder it for all your bookish friends AND get free shipping this instant.

Also, I’ll be part of this murderer’s row at Skylight Books on November 12, 2024 at 7pm.

Thanks for reading! Don’t talk to me about baseball. Next week I expect I’ll have some things to say about a new old obsession. Please stay safe if you find yourself in the path of the climate disaster du jour.

If you liked this newsletter you might also like my latest novel Make It Stop, or the paperback edition of Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records, or my book with Bad Religion, or my book with Keith Morris. I have more books and zines for sale here. And if you’ve read all of those, consider preordering my latest collaboration The Witch’s Door and the anthology Eight Very Bad Nights.

Message from the Underworld comes out every Wednesday and is always available for free, but paid subscribers also get my deepest gratitude and Orca Alert! on most Sundays. It’s a weekly round-up of links about art, culture, crime, and killer whales.